ASSURE Partners at North Dakota UAS and University of North Dakota Aerospace Discuss the Potential Impact UAS will have on Economy

July 7, 2015

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's too small to be Superman, there's no red ape, so it must be a drone! Today, drones probably already outnumber birds and planes in areas where the technology is being applied to industries like agriculture and energy — sectors that benefit enormously from real-time information on assets spread over large tracts of land that require monitoring for maintenance, security and other reasons.

That's good news for areas luring manufacturers of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). It's also good news for areas that support — and can help staff — the cottage industries springing up as drones become more ubiquitous in publicand private-sector contexts. Like North Dakota, which has an advanced UAS industry taking shape even as the FAA works to craft rules governing drones' use in private industry.